Teaching aid for coaching sports and manual skills

ABSTRACT

A teaching aid comprising transparencies is disclosed for coaching sport and other manual skills requiring coordination, in time, of various parts of the body. Transparencies showing various incremental movements of a complicated action in a play or the like are arranged to be flipped for sequential rapid viewing to indicate movements of a right-handed or a left-handed professional player as a teaching aid. Transparencies are generally secured at one edge as by a gripper to provide a booklet form.

United States Patent [ZZl Inventor Michael L. Reynolds.

8304 E. 110th Terrace, Kansas City, Mo. 64134 Appl. No. 874,871

Filed Nov. 7, 1969 Patented July 20, 1971 TEACHING AID FOR COACHING SPORTS AND MANUAL SKILLS 5 Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

U.S Cl .7 35/29 R, 352/99 Int. Cl G03b 25/00 Field of Search 35/29; 352/99 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,787,592 l/l93l Owens 352/99 Primary Examiner-Skogquist, Harland S. AuorneyJones & Lockwood ABSTRACT: A teaching aid comprising transparencies is disclosed for coaching sport and other manual skills requiring coordination, in time, of various parts of the body. Transparencies showing various incremental movements of a complicated action in a play or the like are arranged to be flipped for sequential rapid viewing to indicate movements of a righthanded or a left-handed professional player as a teaching aid. Transparencies are generally secured at one edge as by a gripper to provide a booklet form.

PATENTEUVJULEOIBYH 3 593432 1/4 2 l6 mvs/vron 26 MICHAEL L. REYNOLDS ATTORNEYS Q i been suggested to achieve ment forthepla yerto see, his own movements in cooperation sary motion pictures andteamsyand' thusthis;is not a The objectof the V foregoing problems existingjwith. theyconventional methods.

- the adjacentopaqlie sheets.

' mem was coACl lNG St'oit'rs ANEMTIQUAL L I S FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present "invention relates, in fgenerahto an aid for teaching sports and the like where coordination, intime and.

. position, of va 'ious parts of the player-s body isreq'uired and, i more pa'rticu'latly, to a booklet'adaptedi for use. in; coaching baseball or other sports activities.-

-" DESCRIPTION orrnarnroaanr It iswell knownthat forapetson'who-is learning to coorwith the photographs of an expert for, Comparison has been used; Another way is to compare. the. motion pictures of a play run at a very slow speed: to analyze. the movements. However,

these methods are not very practical when the players are-improving their skills while practicing in the. field because of extra: equipment needed The idea of' picking out certain frames of a' motion pictureshowing the movementsof a player and the corresponding frames of-another motion picture of an expertandmaking the photographic prints therefrom has also been tried. The prints are arranged injuxtapositio'n for comi parison. But it isimpossible to use prints showing movements of an expert left-handed player for a right-handed player or vice versa. Further, theexpense involvedin making'the mes: is beyond the. means :of mostiindividuals I practical solution to the teachingproblem. a I

I "SUM MARYOFTHEINVENTION, present invention is to: overcome the Transparencies are made fromfselected frames of a. motion; picture of an'e'xpert showing exemplary movements. The

transparencies are put together in a..gripper so asto make a booklet. No additional equipment is required'to view the transparencieseand they are'so arranged-that either, a lefthanded. player ora right-handed player can'u'se the same booklet by viewing from one side or the other and flipping Referring now to the depicting various incremental movements, affixed DESCRIPTION A'PRBFERRED EMBODIMENT 1 perspective view of FIG. I, the nurneral I2 generally indicates a teaching aid booklet constructed in accordancelwith the present invention. As shown, the booklet l2 consistsofa number of transparencies l4 and 1 sheets of opaque paper 16 of light color, preferably white, interpo sed between the transparencies. The transparencies are made of transparent plastic sheets, or the like, of an appropriate size, preferably about 4% inches by 2% inches, with reproductions I8, 20, etc. of 16mm. or other suitable frames, or printed thereon.-All the transparencies and the interposed sheets of is on the bottom and the back cover 26 is different 0' a ue P l them. Opaque sheets of light color placedbetween adjacent i transparencies allow the viewer to see one pictureata time. Consequently, this invention achieves the objectives of eliminating the need "of cumbersome equipment for comparison of a player's own movements. with those of anexpert and makes it possible for use by either a left-handed player or a right-handed. player. Therevision-of the booklet to incorporate, some new desirable movements isalso easier than deemed possible-in the prior art.

Bit-tar oascnir'rlou or The DRAWING";

' Thefnovel features of the invention are setiforth with, particularity in thela'ppended claims, but theinvention' will beunderstood morecle'arlyand fully from ade'tailed description of as set-.forth in the a' preferred; embodiment of the invention, accompanying'drawings, in which:

FIG. I. isa pe' pective view ofa booklet in accordance with 'the'present invention;

'FIGJ is a frontview of the booklet (which is partly opened to showvarious transparencies; and nasa- I n end view of the booklet, providing an additional illustration of the. relationship between the transparencies and videdwith a front cover 24 and a back cover 26.

The illustrated embodiment shows successive movements I8, 20, of a figure throwing a ball, and may be illustrative of a baseball pitcher.. Any transparency in the booklet can be viewedwith the front cover at the top and the back cover at the bottom, or vice versa. If the front cover is at the top and the-back cover at the bottom and the booklet is viewed in the direction of arrow 28, flipping the transparencies sequentially down onto the back cover will provide, in the illustrated embodiment, successive increments of the throwing motion of a left-handed player. Reproduction 18 on sheet 14 will be viewed first, with sheet l6 forming a background; reproduction 20 will then be flipped down on top of intermediate sheet 16" whichwill cover sheet l4. Subsequently, opaque sheet 16" will be flipped down to cover transparency l4, and sheet 14" will be viewed. It will be recognized that by flipping the booklet pages rapidly, an appearance of motion will result, while the booklet can also be used to show for detailed study still pictures of portions of'the complete motion.

As'has been indicated, the same transparencies can be used in illustrating the motions of a right-handed pitcher, merely by viewing them in the same'order (e.g., sheets l4, l4, 14'', etc.) but from the opposite side of each sheet; This may be accomplished by turning the booklet over, so thatthe front cover 24 on the top. The transparencies may then be viewed in sequence by turning them upwardly towardthe back cover. In this case, however,

sheets form the background for each transparency; i.e., transparency 14 will be backed by sheet 16', transparency l4 will be backed by sheet 16", and so on.

End 22,where all the transparencies and the sheets of white paper separating them are secured together, may be inserted into va resilient plastic gripper 30, as illustrated in FIG. 2. The gripper, or other suitable holder, serves to hold the booklet together, and'may be used to secure covers 24 and 26 to the booklet.

The relative positions of two adjoining transparencies l4 and I4 and the interposed sheet of white paper 16' are illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. The sheet of paper of light color, preferably white, is used to provide a good background for either of the two transparencies and it also eliminates the imprintsof other transparencies interfering with the process of viewing a particular transparency.

' The flexibility with which any of the transparencies can be viewed from various-positions is further illustrated in FIG. 3. The sheets of white paper 16,,16, etc. will provide proper background for viewing the transparencies 14, 14, etc. from either front or back. 1 v

As has been described, the present invention provides an extremelyversatile and flexible coaching tool by providing a booklet which may be used in comparing movements of a 'player with'the corresponding movements of an expert booklet also facilitates filing for future use and the plastic sheets comprising the transparencies will not deteriorate easiplurality of opaque sheets, said transparencies and sheets being assembled in a booklet form with one of said sheets ly. The transparencies can be marked with grease pencils of 5 different colors to stress a point, after which the marks can be' washed off without damaging the transparencies in any way. The booklet can be revised easily by adding new transparencies to show new incremental movements in a complicated play.

gHaving described fully a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it will be understood that many variations are possible to those skilled in the art, and the invention in its broader aspect, is not limited to the particular embodiment shown and described. For example, the size of the transparencies and the nature of imprints thereon may vary depending upon the nature of the use to which such a booklet is put. Further, the printed material on the sheets may be in black-and-white line drawings, prints of black-and-white or color photographs, or the like, and the order of viewing may differ from that shown in the described embodiment.

Whatl claim is: I l. A teaching aid for use in coaching sports and like activities requiring coordination, in time and position, of various parts of the body, the said teaching aid comprising a plurality of transparencies illustrating incremental movements and a separating each pair of adjacent transparencies, the said transparencies being arranged for sequential viewing from either side, whereby either left-handed or right-handed movements will be displayed.

2. The teaching aid of claim 1, wherein said opaque sheets are sheets of white material, each sheet of said material serving as a background for one of a pair of adjacent transparencies when viewing illustrations of left-handed movements, and serving as a background for the other of said pair of adjacent transparencies when viewing illustrations of righthanded movements, thereby eliminating interference from other transparencies. I

3. The teaching aid of claim 2, wherein said plurality of transparencies and sheets are secured together along one edge whereby said transparencies may be flipped for rapid sequential viewing from either side.

4. The teaching aid of claim 3, wherein said transparencies are releasably secured by gripper means for easy replacement of transparencies.

5. The teaching aid of claim 3, wherein said transparencies comprise transparent plastic sheets, each carrying a reproduction depicting a different incremental portion of a movement to be taught. 

1. A teaching aid for use in coaching sports and like activities requiring coordination, in time and position, of various parts of the body, the said teaching aid comprising a plurality of transparencies illustrating incremental movements and a plurality of opaque sheets, said transparencies and sheets being assembled in a booklet form with one of said sheets separating each pair of adjacent transparencies, the said transparencies being arranged for sequential viewing from either side, whereby either lefthanded or right-handed movements will be displayed.
 2. The teaching aid of claim 1, wherein said opaque sheets are sheets of white material, each sheet of said material serving as a background for one of a pair of adjacent transparencies when viewing illustrations of left-handed movements, and serving as a background for the other of said pair of adjacent transparencies when viewing illustrations of right-handed movements, thereby eliminating interference from other transparencies.
 3. The teaching aid of claim 2, wherein said plurality of transparencies and sheets are secured together along one edge whereby said transparencies may be flipped for rapid sequential viewing from either side.
 4. The teaching aid of claim 3, wherein said transparencies are releasably secured by gripper means for easy replacement of transparencies.
 5. The teaching aid of claim 3, wherein said transparencies comprise transparent plastic sheets, each carrying a reproduction depicting a different incremental portion of a movement to be taught. 